Angie knew me well enough to give up easily. “Ok. Whether he’s real or not, my plan is still the same.”

“As long as your plan involves helping her, I’m game.”

“You’ve never been one to get blinded by a pretty face.” Angie sat on the edge of my bed. “Or a nice set of legs.”

“She does have both of those things.”

“Noah.” She rolled her eyes.

“Sorry. Couldn’t help it. Okay. Your plan involves her confiding in us, but what’s the end goal? She’s not a student. We can’t use health services or any university counseling or anything. Isn’t that what you’re talking about? All that trauma talk?”

Angie pulled her legs up under her. “We need to figure out if she has any family around here. Friends. How did she even get here?”

“And how are we going to do that? She won’t even tell us where she came from.” And that part was starting to get to me. Everyone was entitled to secrets, but she had too many.

“You’re going to talk to her.”

“Me?” I put a hand to my chest.

“Yes, you. She trusts you. You saw how she reacted when I suggested we talk without you. It’s probably some attachment issue.”

“Again, you have no training in psychology.” I eyed my closed door. I really hoped Dale was being normal. Well, as normal as Dale could be.

“Do you deny she seems to have latched on to you specifically?”

“Maybe it’s normal. I’m the one who let her in. She met me first.” And now it sounded like I was talking about a dog. Real nice.

“She needs to get changed. Maybe after we can get her to leave the house for a bit. Get some fresh air, and she’ll start talking.”

I had to admit, Angie had a good point. “Thanks for coming.”

Angie shrugged. “I don’t want you to get arrested or killed.”

“And you think Rachel is going to lead to one of those things?” I shook my head.

“I don’t think she’s dangerous. I’m not going to pretend it’s a psychology thing, just an instinct. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have dangerous friends. Like I said there’s trauma there.”

“Like how she said she was really confused about why she left without her brother…” I trailed off. There had to be a story there, and I had a feeling it was going to be a very dark one.

“Yes, and you are going to have to get answers.”

“And you’ll stay around until I do?” I didn’t want to sound like I needed my sister, but I did. Maybe Rachel was attached to me or something, but having another girl around couldn’t hurt. Particularly one like Angie.

“You’re the only brother I have.”

“I know.” And I hated to think about that. Angie and I had been through a dark history of our own.

“All right. I hope you’re ready.” Angie rose and walked over to the door.

We walked back out. Rachel was still sitting at the kitchen table. Dale was sitting across from her.

“Hey.” I walked into Rachel’s line of sight. “Want to try on the clothes Angie brought over? She’s tall like you are, so maybe they’ll fit well.”

“Oh. Thanks.” Rachel stood, picked up the bag, and walked down the hall to my room. She closed the door behind her.

As soon as the door closed, Dale leaned in. “You could have left her in that t-shirt a few minutes longer.”

“You are such an asshole.” Angie smacked his arm.

He rubbed his arm. “It’s a joke. Ever hear of it?”

“It’s misogynistic.”

“Oh… big fancy words.” He slumped down in his chair.

“You know what that means.”

“Can you two stop?” I groaned. “We have bigger things to worry about.”

“If Dale doesn’t rein it in, we will have bigger problems.”

She was right. Completely right. “Angie is right. Chill out.”

“I get you called dibs.” A smile replaced the frown on his face.

“This has nothing to do with dibs. Rachel’s clearly got some issues. We need to help her.”

“Do you think she maybe, uh, took something to cause this?” Dale tapped the side of his head. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“This is trauma, not drugs.” Angie leaned back against the counter.

“They aren’t mutually exclusive.” Dale leaned forward on his elbows. “Often they go hand in hand.”

Before I could say anything Rachel came out of my room dressed in jeans and a purple long sleeve shirt. “This is better than what I wore last night, right?”

Better was a hard word when comparing anything to a tight black bodysuit. “You look very nice.”

“Would you like to take a walk? Get some fresh air?” Angie jumped to her feet. “Noah will come of course.”

“Of course,” Dale used a patronizing voice I hoped she didn’t pick up on.

“What about finding Benjamin?”

“We need to come up with a plan first.” I hoped that bought us some time. “A walk might help us with that.” I wasn’t sure what was going to help with that, but I was all for trying.

“Sure.” Rachel put a hand in her pocket, watching as her fingers disappeared inside. It was almost as if she’d never seen a pocket before. “Can we go to the park? I remember loving it there.”

Angie and I exchanged looks. This was good. I was pretty sure it was. She was opening up more. “Audubon Park?”

“I don’t remember what it was called. But it was close to here.”

“I bet it’s this one. It’s just down the street.” Angie smiled. “Noah, let her borrow a sweatshirt. It’s cool out this morning.”

I headed to my room and grabbed a generic grey zip-up hoodie. I handed it to her after unzipping it. If she hadn’t seen pockets before, it wasn’t a far stretch to think that she hadn’t seen zippers either.

She smiled in thanks and slipped it on. It was big on her, but she didn’t seem to care. She examined the zipper before dropping it and leaving it open. I thought it wise not to offer to help. Embarrassing her wasn’t going to help us.

We headed out. It took me a minute to get the door to lock, and Rachel waited at the bottom of the stairs for me. “Your door isn’t very secure.”

“No. It’s not.” If I thought the landlord would do anything about it I would have told him.

“You should fix that.”

“Okay. I will.” Rather I’d make a phone call. I wasn’t investing any money into this rental.

“You promise?”

Why did she care about the safety of my apartment? I figured it didn’t really matter. “Okay, I promise.”